Job 19
1 And Job answers and says:
But Job answered by saying:
2 “Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
How long will you afflict my soul and wear me down with words?
3 These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
So, ten times you confound me and are not ashamed to oppress me.
4 And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
Now, of course, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me.
5 If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
But you have risen up against me, and you accuse me to my disgrace.
6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
At least now you should understand that God has not afflicted me with a balanced judgment, though he has encompassed me with his scourges.
7 Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
Behold, I will cry out, enduring violence, and no one will hear. I will announce loudly, but there is no one who may judge.
8 He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
He has hemmed in my path, and I cannot pass; he has added darkness to my difficult path.
9 He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
He has plundered me of my glory, and he has stolen the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
He has destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and, like an uprooted tree, he has taken away my hope.
11 And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
His fury has raged against me, and in this way he has treated me like his enemy.
12 His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
His troops have gathered together, and they have made their way to me, and they have besieged my tabernacle all around.
13 He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
He has put my brothers far from me, and my friends have withdrawn from me like strangers.
14 My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
My kinsmen have forsaken me, and those who knew me, have forgotten me.
15 Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.
The inhabitants of my house and my maidservants treat me just as if I were a stranger, and I have been like a sojourner in their eyes.
16 I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
I called my servant, and he did not respond; I pleaded with him with my own mouth.
17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
My wife has shuddered at my breath, and I have begged the sons of my loins.
18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
Even the foolish have looked down on me, and, when I withdrew from them, they spoke ill of me.
19 All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
Those who were sometimes my counselors, treat me like an abomination; and he whom I valued the most has turned against me.
20 To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
Since my flesh has been consumed, my bone adheres to my skin, and only my lips have been left around my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
Have mercy on me, have compassion on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why do you pursue me just as God does, and satiate yourselves with my flesh?
23 Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
Who will grant to me that my words may be written down? Who will grant to me that they may be inscribed in a book,
24 With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
with an iron pen and a plate of lead, or else be carved in stone?
25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise out of the earth.
26 And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
And I will be enveloped again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.
27 Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.
It is he whom I myself will see, and he whom my eyes will behold, and no other. This, my hope, has taken rest in my bosom.
28 But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
Why then do you now say: “Let us pursue him, and let us find a basis to speak against him?”
29 Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
So then, flee from the face of the sword, for the sword is the avenger of iniquities; but know this: there is to be a judgment.
